Wall Street elites will pocket windfall from record $46 billion profits Tony Owusu, Celine Provini Wed, October 7, 2026 at 1:17 PM EDT 4 min read ^GSPC -0.23% ^IXIC -0.38% ^DJI -0.57% The stock market has shown unprecedented resilience in 2026.
Despite an ongoing war in Iran with no end in sight, gas prices expected to remain elevated for years, and stubbornly sticky inflation, the S&P 500 closed the Tuesday, Oct. 6, session above the record closing level it set in August.
That comes a day after the Nasdaq set its own all-time record high, and while the Dow Jones Index has fallen in recent weeks, the blue-chip index reached its own high in August.
The biggest beneficiary from these trends has obviously been Wall Street banks. And their workers are in line for some big bonuses at year's end.
Wall Street profits reached $45.9 billion in the first half of the year, according to a report released by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
At the start of the year, New York City forecast that Wall Street profits would be $45.3 billion… for the entire year. That expectation was actually 30% lower than it was in 2025. The financial sector is on pace to more than double those expectations.
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The industry is just a few billion dollars from surpassing the record it set last year with $65.1 billion in profits, which was 30% more than the previous record set in 2009.
"Wall Street is having an exceptionally strong year, fueled by a boom in artificial intelligence spending, increased merger and acquisition activity, and elevated trading volumes amid market volatility," DiNapoli said.
"Despite geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty, the industry has remained resilient. Barring a recession or major market disruption, strong profits should continue to provide an important boost to state and city revenue."
Like the stock market gains, much of Wall Street firms' profits are coming from artificial intelligence buildout spending.
Wall Street firms are seeing increases in all revenue lines, except for commodities trading, which is being impacted by elevated crude prices. Still, AI investment has been a special growth driver that "continues to drive the market," DiNapoli's report stated.
According to New York State, AI-related venture capital reached $407 billion in the first half of the year, more than 50% higher than the annual total of $264 billion in 2025. The report noted that some analysts expect AI investment activity to exceed $1 trillion globally this year.
Elections matter, and the financial sector has also benefited from the more relaxed regulatory environment fostered by the Trump administration.
The report pointed to the executive order Trump signed two weeks after his inauguration that eliminated 10 existing regulations, the administration's move to curtail the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, its abolishment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and the elimination of requirements for climate risk disclosures as the regulatory reasons for the record pace.
But the New York Comptroller's office also acknowledged that these moves could have disastrous consequences down the road.
"While these changes may have led to a reduction in the costs of managing regulatory requirements in the securities industry, they may also increase the potential risks to the sector in the future," the report stated.
The record profits means more bonuses for the bankers doing the deals.
While it doesn't provide specific bonus expectations for this year, the Comptroller's office noted that the 2025 bonus pool grew to a record high of $49.2 billion in 2025, a 9% year-over-year increase.
The average annual salary for New York's more than 200,000 financial sector workers reached $561,770 in 2025, an 11.1% year-over-year increase it said was driven by higher bonuses spurred by last year's record profits.
Last year's bonuses averaged $246,900 per industry employee.
With those profits this year expected to far exceed 2025 levels, bonuses and overall compensation are expected to get a huge bump. Bonuses accounted for an estimated 43% of securities industry wages last year.
DiNapoli's office said it won't release its official bonus estimates until next March.
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This story was originally published by TheStreet on Oct 7, 2026, where it first appeared in the Markets section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
